Landscaping

Perennial flowers bloom every year for you -- so far, so good. But what about bloom period within any given year? That's another question, altogether....

If you're the type who demands constant color in the landscape, long-blooming perennials can be a real boon, saving you the job of finding "fillers" that will plug the gaps in floral color. But not all perennial flowers stay in bloom for long periods of time.

Enter the long-blooming perennials discussed in this article. These workhorses are the dream of the gardener who can never get enough of floral color but who also "has a life" outside of the garden.

I just came back from a two-week vacation and was glad to see three long-bloomers in flower upon revisiting my yard: coreopsis, lavender and Shasta daisy. They nicely complemented the shorter-bloomers that were also in flower, including peonies and Maltese cross.

Put in your 2 cents: What Are Your Favorite Plants?

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_{Photo ©2008 David Beaulieu (licensed to About, Inc.)}

"Coffee has been dumped in compost, used to deter slugs and side-dressed as a mulch, but what about those paper filters?" asks Marie Iannotti. In this FAQ on composting coffee filters, About.com's Gardening Guide tackles the question from a number of different angles, including:

• Is it safe to put coffee filters in your compost bin?
• Are coffee filters biodegradable, and if so, how fast do they break down?
• Since coffee filters are treated with bleach, is there any place for them in organic landscaping?

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_{Photo ©2006 David Beaulieu (licensed to About, Inc.)}

In last month's report, I said that I was holding back on telling you about a few of my stars: there were so many potential nominees, it seemed like overkill to mention all of them at once. Plus many would still be blooming in June, so why not include them in my June report, instead?

Well, now it's time to recognize some of those stars of my yard that have yet to receive their due in my monthly landscaping reports for 2013.

So without further ado, here are my stars for the last few weeks:

• Mock orange
• Weigela
• Irises
• Peonies
• Rhododendron
• Golden chain trees
• 'Wolf Eyes' dogwood
• Salvias
• Climbing hydrangeas
• Japanese willow
• Gold Mound spirea
• Tree peony
• Oriental poppy
• Perennial bachelor buttons
• Gibraltar azalea
• 6 Hills Giant Catmint
• Virginia sweetspire
• Stella de Oro daylily
• Lamb's ears

How about you? Vote in my poll below and let us know what plants are shining most brightly in your own yard right now.

The front yard is often a strange amalgam between the public and private spheres. Many homeowners keep their front yards largely open to public view, out of fear that a more private setting would tempt burglars. But this approach to front-yard landscaping is riddled with its own drawbacks.

Myself, I'm the retiring sort. I treasure my privacy. And many others feel the same way. I'm also very goal-oriented. If I want to socialize, then I'll put my socializing hat on and have at it. But if I'm going out into the front yard for the purpose of trimming a hedge, then that's precisely what I wish to do. I'm not especially keen on having such work interrupted every 5 minutes by passersby who wish to shoot the breeze.

There's sometimes a misconception about those of us who cherish our privacy. It's not that we wish to hide anything behind our privacy screens. It's just that we don't want to live under a microscope.

Even good neighbors don't enjoy feeling obligated to wave "Hello" every time they step outside, as if needing permission before continuing on their business. "Good fences make good neighbors" is an old adage made famous by Robert Frost's poem, Mending Wall. Even though Frost's intended message in the poem probably differs from the wisdom in the adage, I think the latter is just as valid today as ever.

Read article: Front-Yard Landscaping

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_{Photo ©2007 David Beaulieu (licensed to About, Inc.)}

The botanical name for rose of sharon is Hibiscus syriacus. Many gardeners who grow the plant in northern climes don't typically think of it as a Hibiscus, though, as they may reserve that term for the tropical flowers of the same name that they see growing in greenhouses. But the syriacus part of the name is what's most confusing, so let me delve into a bit of history to help explain it:

"Rose of sharon" is a name found in Song of Solomon 2:1 and may be a biblical name for God. Initially (but erroneously) thought to be native to Syria, its namers dubbed it syriacus. Botanists later discovered it to be native to China, but the species name stuck.

Rose of sharon is also sometimes referred to by the common name, "althea." That's because the flowers of mallow (the Althaea genus) are similar to those of rose of sharon.

But by any other name, rose of sharon is a shrub with much to offer. One of the stars of my Landscaping Forum, John76, lists some of the selling points for rose of sharon:

• It flowers in late summer, when few other shrubs are blooming
• It is floriferous, with an attractive (although not huge) blossom
• A rose of sharon hedge can grow tall enough to function as a living privacy fence
• It is easy to propagate

Put in your 2 cents: What Are Your Favorite Plants?

_{Photo ©2008 David Beaulieu (licensed to About, Inc.)}

Compost is of great value to your landscape. Making compost on your own saves you from buying products at the store for fertilizing your plants. But for some of us, at least, there's more to it than just the practical side.

Many are excited by the idea of having their own mini-recycling center right on their own property! Indeed, part of the appeal of making compost is the trash-to-treasure aspect of the project. We composters fancy ourselves as modern-day alchemists, converting refuse into "black gold." The resulting satisfaction is enormous and a major motivation for making compost -- even if you don't have a huge garden.

My introductory article on how to make compost will bring you up to speed, in case you're new to making compost. Learn about:

• Compostable materials
• Containers ("bins")
• What fuels the decomposition process
• Why you should turn your pile

Related resource: Pest Control in the Vegetable Garden

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I've been posing a question to my readers recently in my Landscaping newsletter; namely, "What are your favorite plants?" Reader, Peg told us about her favorite plant, answered a few questions about it, and included photos. I'm making her the "Featured Reader" for today. Peg's favorite: lotus flowers.

Would you like to be the Featured Reader someday? All you need is a camera and a keyboard. You can make your submission using this form.

As Peg notes, the beautiful lotus flowers are accompanied by leaves that are also attractive. And those of you who aren't crazy about "cleaning up" will love this piece of advice that Peg offers: "Allow some soil and muck in the bottom of the pond -- you don't want to keep the pond pristine!" All that beauty, and yet there's no need to muck about in the muck: You have to love lotus flowers!

Did you know...?

In 1772, American colonists in New Hampshire contested Britain's claim on the Eastern white pine trees there, valued for ships' masts. The resulting "Pine Tree Riot" presaged the American Revolution.

Also in 1772, Carl Pieter Thunberg collected bird of paradise plants (picture) in Africa and shipped them to Europe.

In 1842 the first chemical fertilizer was manufactured, in Deptford, England.

The above facts come compliments of Flora Mirabilis, by Catherine Herbert Howell. This plant book is a collaborative effort between the Missouri Botanical Garden and National Geographic.

Read review: Flora Mirabilis

'Royal Candles' Veronica is a clump-forming perennial that attains a height of just 15 inches. Although these Veronica flowers first bloom in late spring to early summer, you can enjoy the purplish blue flower spikes throughout the summer with proper care. Learn about 'Royal Candles' Veronica and how to care for it in this article.

If you enjoy delving into the origins of plant names, you'll find a bonanza in this perennial. The botanical name derives from a biblical incident, as I relate in my article. As for the common name, "speedwell," I've found no general agreement in my reading as to where it comes from, although some suggest an origin in the plant's medicinal properties (as in "get well quickly"). If you know of an authoritative resource on the history behind the common name, please relate it in the Comments section, below.

Incidentally, there's also a weed named "speedwell": specifically, corn speedwell. It's one of those tiny weeds that can cause huge headaches in a landscape if your aim is to stay weed-free. The best way to fight corn speedwell is to stay ahead on your weeding and keep as many of these minute menaces from going to seed as possible.

_{Photo ©2010 David Beaulieu (licensed to About, Inc.)}

For tasks in life that involve a process, getting the order right is often critical if you wish to do the job properly. While the "Wordled" version of my Landscaping home page (see picture at right) may be mildly amusing as a piece of funky art, it leaves a lot to be desired, functionally. OK, scratch that: It leaves everything to be desired.

That's because, for practical purposes, the words on this page are meant to be read in a certain order; jumbled up, as in the picture, they don't make sense. Of course, Wordle doesn't care about making sense. This web tool was designed with an eye to entertaining the user. Want to try it out? Just go to the Wordle web site and plug in a URL of your own. The result will be a word collage. It will be a nifty time-waster for you if, like me, you're always looking for ways to raise wasting time to an art form....

But let's return to matters where getting the order right does count for something. Landscaping is one of those matters. The folks at Chinook Landscaping in Calgary list "installing landscaping in the wrong order" as "a surprisingly common mistake in Calgary," stating that "homeowners and even some Calgary landscapers can install their landscaping components in the wrong order. Their yard can quickly become a clutter of landscaping materials strewn all over with no real direction noticeable."

Yikes! I guess Chinook won't have to worry about some of their competition for long, because that sounds like a recipe for disaster. Read my article to learn about other common landscaping mistakes -- so that you can avoid them.